The Scarlet Apprentice 2: The Multiverse Between Us

Amusement at the feast

"You gonna eat that?" Sam asked, looking down at the uneaten piece of meat on Jimmy's plate.

When Jimmy looked at him at realised what he was referring to, he shook his head and smiled, "oh, no, I'm stuffed. Do you want-,"

Before Jimmy could finish his sentence, Sam had already dug his knife into the meat and pulled it onto his own plate. In confusion, he raised his head to see if anyone saw what had happened, only to be met with Bucky's stare. All Bucky did was shrug as if to say that Sam's behaviour was a normal thing, so Jimmy didn't bother questioning it.

As the night progressed and everyone began finishing their foods, the immediate outburst of conversations began to die down. What started as an interesting discussion about each hero's greatest feats gradually ended as a small debate about what the best superpower is.

Once y/n had finished all she could stomach, she sat silently in her chair, occasionally laughing when everyone else did so that her behaviour didn't seem suspicious. She'd add a sarcastic comment every now and then when an opportunity showed itself, but nothing more. That was until someone spoke to her directly.

"So, what new skills have you got?" Coulson asked, which sparked up interest from everyone at the table.

After rolling her her shoulders and clearing her throat, y/n asked, "does anyone need the salt?"

"I could use some," Shang, who was at the other end of the table, called over.

May furrowed her brows, "you've learnt to be nice? Is that you new skill?"

Y/n tilted her head and flashed May a cocky smile. Without looking, she lifted the salt with her powers, the blue light enveloping the tiny container. May's and Coulson's eyes couldn't leave the salt as it hovered across the table, but y/n didn't remove her stare from May until she looked back.

"Okay," May nodded to herself, "that is new. And impressive."

"Thank you," y/n smiled, gently lowering the salt at Shang's spot.

Coulson turned to her, "how did that happen? The you I knew would've thrown the salt and had it land perfectly."

She nodded in agreement, "I would've. And for how I got this... it's hard to explain. Remember the darkhold?" When she watched their faces drop, she nodded again, "yeah, that's all I need to say."

"What's the best thing you can do?" May asked, eager to know, "your coolest trick."

"Well, you know, it heavily depends on my mood, so when I get really angry or really sad, it kinda," she shrugged, "gets pretty powerful."

"God, that would've been useful against AIDA," Yoyo grunted.

Strange pitched in, "what's AIDA?"

"Who," Fitz corrected him, "she was created by myself and another scientist to be an artificially intelligent, digital assistant. Hence the name AIDA."

When Simmons saw the doctors confusion, she explained, "she turned against us and trapped us in an alternate reality where hydra ruled the world because she was in love with Fitz and wanted to be with him."

"I'm sorry- turned against you?" Monica asked, now invested in the story.

Darcy leant in to whisper, "I told you robots can do that."

"She went batshit crazy," Daisy simplified it, receiving a few chuckles from the bunch, "tried to kill us all."

"That's kind of like Ultron," Jimmy added, then looked around, "I mean... I'm guessing, I wasn't there, so I'm not entirely sure."

When Strange saw Jimmy looking at him, he shrugged, "don't look at me, I wasn't there either, I don't know."

Then when his stare fell to Bucky, he also shook his head, "I had nothing to do with it."

"It is like ultron," Wanda admitted, catching everyone's attention. Y/n looked at her immediately, her eyes offering her support and a way out of the conversation, but Wanda clearly didn't mind talking about it. "Ultron was created by Stark to serve as protection. At some point, he changed. He no longer saw the good in man and decided to turn against us. You could also say that he went batshit crazy."

With a proud and loving smile on her face, y/n looked at Wanda while the people around her laughed or spoke. She received a blush and a smile from Wanda until her attention was called for once again.

"So you guys should easily be able to take on Agatha, right?" Mack asked, finishing up the last bits of his food.

Sam spoke, smiling, "with all the witches and wizards we have on our side, I don't think it'll be any trouble."

"Not a wizard," strange corrected him with a stern stare, "and, anyway... it'll be challenging, but I'm sure we'll do whatever it takes. We're all very aware of the risks."

Deke huffed a laugh, "come on. Y/n, with your powers alone you could probably take her on your own. This should be easy."

Y/n cleared the lump from her throat and announced, "I don't really think we need to talk about this." When she received confused stares, she steered them away from suspicion, "we should be celebrating, right? Not worrying about tomorrow."

"Y/n's right," Bucky spoke up after seeing how uncomfortable y/n was getting, "we shouldn't think about it. I say we get some alcohol and some music, and not even think about tomorrow."

Strange looked around the table, "is everyone finished?"

"I think Sam's finished most of what everyone else couldn't," Katy told him, "so, yeah."

He nodded, "alright. Everyone to the hall, I'll get the drinks."

As y/n pushed herself out of her seat, she asked, "I- there's a hall in this place?"

"There's everything in this place," Wong answered for him as he began stacking the plates.

"Woah- Wong, no," y/n stopped him, "leave that. Come and dance with us, we can do this after."

"I can't just leave it here," he told her, "it's no trouble, I'll just-"

"Wong, I swear to god, if you touch another plate, we're going to have a fight. Come and have fun, I'll help you with it afterwards."